1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the control of an inventory of items to be loaned or rented, and, more particularly, to updating inventory and customer records while monitoring the process of returning loaned or rented items, such as video recordings or library books, for which additional fees are due when the items are returned late.
2. Summary of the Background Art
A typical video rental store includes a display area in which video tapes and disks are displayed for rental, a number of transaction terminals, and two chutes through which rented video recordings are returned, with an outside chutes being arranged to provide for the introduction of video recordings from the outside, and with the indoor chute being arranged to provide for the introduction of video recordings from inside the store. The outdoor chute provides a convenient way for customers to return video recordings at times when the store is closed and may additionally be used by customers hurrying to return items without becoming involved in the customer traffic within the store.
This type of store typically receives payments for rented video recordings at the transaction terminals before the recordings leave the store, being rented for a previously established time. When a recording is rented, the identity of the customer is also established, with a determination being made that the customer has an account with the store, or alternatively with the establishment of a new account for a customer not previously having an account. If a recording is returned later than the time at which the recording is due back, a penalty is charged against the account of the customer. Often, this penalty is not charged until the customer returns to the store to rent another video. Otherwise, the customer may be contacted by mail or telephone regarding the payment, or a charge may be placed against a credit card account specified for that purpose.
One problem with this method arises from the fact that the time at which the customer deposits the video recording within a chute is not recorded. The determination of whether a penalty is owed, and the amount of the penalty, is supposed to be based on whether the recording is returned before a predetermined time of day, which may occur when the store is open or closed. Thus, if the process of charging penalties is to be accurate, it is incumbent upon employees of the store that recordings that have been returned before the predetermined time of day must be segregated from subsequently returned recordings soon after the predetermined time of day is reached. While this is a particular problem if this time of day occurs when the store is closed, it can also be a problem if the time of day occurs when the store is open, but when its employees are busy. Thus, what is needed is a method for monitoring the time at which individual recordings are returned without requiring the employee attention to the return process.
Another problem with this method arises from the fact that, before employees are able to return recording deposited through the chutes to inventory, there is no record of which recordings have been returned. Thus, such recordings are not readily available for rental. Often, a recording of a recently released movie is so much in demand that employees have to search a pile of returned video recordings to determine whether a recording of the movie has been returned so that it can be rented again without delay. Thus, what is needed is a system providing timely information on which recordings have been returned without being restocked inventory.
The patent literature describes a number of examples of stand-alone vending machines providing for the rental and return of video recordings by a customer without a need for employee assistance or intervention during the rental and return processes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,505 describes a machine in which a plurality of videocassettes or other such products are stored in discrete, identifiable locations. A customer identification device receives information about the customer. A mode selection device enables the customer to select among a vend mode, a rent mode, and a return mode, and a videocassette selection device enables the customer to select a desired videocassette to be vended or rented. In the return mode, a videocassette identification device receives information representative of the identity of the videocassette and its travel case being returned. A videocassette is accepted for return only when its travel case has been identified as having originated from the particular machine, with a videocassette transport device then transporting the identified videocassette to the first closest available empty discrete location in the storage device of the machine. If the videocassette is not identified, it is placed with its travel case in a storage area within the machine to prevent further re-rental. A memory device stores information about the customer, the selected mode, the selected videocassette, and the coordinates of videocassettes and available discrete locations in the storage device.
Another example of a vending machine providing video recordings is a vending unit, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,810, including a number of cubicles, each holding a TV film, dispensed in response to the manipulation by an identified patron.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,802 describes a method of renting an article, such as a video cassette or film, to a patron by presenting a hire token to a renting machine for recognition, which starts an article selection circuit to run until it is stopped by the patron when a desired article registers with a delivery receptacle. The machine records the code of the hire token and holds the hire token captive until it is released upon return of the rented article. A foreign article, not coming from the renting machine, is recognized as such and not accepted. The machine may be adapted to operate in a cash renting mode, accepting payment tokens, or in a credit renting mode, debiting the patron's account.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,474 describes an automated system for renting or loaning media, such as videos, games, and music, recorded on magnetic storage media including a cassette housing having one or more spools for holding a length of magnetic tape and an integral radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,384 describes a vending machine operable by users having identification cards bearing user-identifying codes, with the machine vending and receiving articles, such as videocassettes, having article-identifying codes. The machine includes a single common code reader, such as an optical scanner, for reading both user-identifying codes and article-identifying codes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,906 describes a vending machine for renting and/or selling articles such as videocassettes or audio tapes that are each identifiable by its own code, with the machine including an apparatus, for dispensing and returning the articles, including a pair of opposing stationary arrays of locations, with each location being capable of holding an article and having its own location code.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,766 describes an unattended automated rental system for articles such as videocassettes, including a storage unit with electronically locked bins containing rental articles. Each bit and its article have an identification code strip. A customer terminal having a keyboard and a display monitor controlled from a computer permits a customer to review available articles, to reserve articles, and to select articles for rental, causing a control module operated by the computer to unlock a selected bin. An article returned to a bin is checked by the control module for its code strip, with the bin then being locked if the strip is correct. The customer terminal checks customer identification and receives payments.
U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2002/0082917 A1 describes a system including a kiosk returning terminal in which management information from a returned card including a recording medium is transmitted to an electronic content programs distributing server, which determines whether the card contains a rented content program. If it does, the server obtains information including the user name, rented program title, and the like for the card, calculates a usage period, and transmits the result to the kiosk returning terminal, enabling payment of an additional fee at the terminal.
While the patent documents to which reference is made above each provide for recognizing a code identifying a returned rented article, what is needed is a method for recognizing such a code as an article, such as a video recording, is returned through a deposit chute, and for providing a description of the article, together with the time at which it was returned to personnel within a video rental store. Preferably, such information can be collected and provided without requiring any additional actions on the part of the customer returning the article.
Other patent documents describe the use of membership cards in a rental process. For example, International Application No. WO98/03944 describes a store system through which a video cassette tape is rented from a video renting machine by using a membership card having an integrated circuit on which information describing the rental status of the tape and the payment status of the rental is stored. U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,212 describes a dispensing machine that is accessed repeatedly by a card issued by the machine. Again, what is needed is a system providing rental store employees information concerning the identity of returned items and the time of their return.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,884 describes an article inventory tracking and control system that tracks and controls the removal of articles from a secured facility, such as a library, rental store, or retail store. Each article is marked with an EAS (electronic article surveillance) marker to prevent its unauthorized removal. Each user of the facility and each article in the facility are uniquely identifiable. Upon receiving the user and article information, a system queries a central database to ensure that the user is a valid user and that the desired transaction is authorized. The article is placed in a special compartment for a particular type of article so that the EAS marker can be properly desensitized. Again, what is needed is a system helping store employees track returned items.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,290 describes a multiple-compartment display rack to be provided in an area accessible to browsing customers. Each cell in the display rack removably receives an open-ended transparent plastic envelope containing a display card, preferably printed with photographics, artwork and verbal indicia unique to a particular valuable article or service that is potentially available. Filed in series with each of the display cards is a number of token cards, each bearing an instruction such as “TAKE CARD TO REGISTER” and each representing a unit of the product or service, and a single card bearing a legend such as “SORRY I'M RENTED.” At the check-out register, one of the token cards is exchanged for an actual boxed pre-recorded video cassette or other particular article or service. The token card may then be placed in an inaccessible-to-customers supply area for inventory control purposes, until the rented article is returned, a restocking inventory is taken, or the like. What is needed is a system providing for the return of articles without requiring a concurrent action by a store employee.